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| Birth Name(s) : William James Murray |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
Margaret Kelley (1980-1994) |
| Profession:
N/A |
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Full Bill Murray Biography
William James "Bill" Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-winning American comedian and actor. He is perhaps most famous for his work in Saturday Night Live, as well as for his comedic roles in films such as Stripes, Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Rushmore, among many others. He has gained further acclaim for recent dramatic roles, such as in the acclaimed films Lost In Translation, Broken Flowers and The Royal Tenenbaums.
With an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at Second City Chicago studying under Del Close. The improvisational comedy troupe was a perfect fit for Murray's clever, dry humor and ad libbing. He eventually became a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, aired on some 600 stations from 1973 to 1974.
In 1975, he landed his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. That same season, another variety show titled NBC's Saturday Night premiered. Cosell's show lasted just one season.
Murray later revisited the troupe he started with in the TV special Bill Murray Live From the Second City in 1980.
Murray began work on a film adaptation of the novel The Razor's Edge. The film, which Murray also co-wrote, was his first starring role in a dramatic film. He later agreed to star in Ghostbusters in a role originally written for John Belushi. This was a deal Murray made with Columbia Pictures in order to gain financing for his film. Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing film of 1984. But The Razor's Edge, which was filmed before Ghostbusters but not released until after, was a box-office flop. Upset over the failure of Razor's Edge, Murray took four years off from acting to study Philosophy and history at the Sorbonne and spend time with his family in their Hudson River Valley home. With the exception of a memorable cameo in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors, he did not make any appearances in films.
After a string of films that did not do well with audiences, he received much critical acclaim for Wes Anderson's Rushmore for which he won several awards. Murray then experienced a resurgence in his career as a dramatic actor. After dramatic roles in Wild Things, Cradle Will Rock, Hamlet (as Polonius), and The Royal Tenenbaums, he garnered considerable acclaim for the 2003 film Lost in Translation. He received a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA award. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, in what was considered to be a two-horse race between him and Sean Penn, who eventually prevailed. In an interview included on the Lost in Translation DVD, Murray states that this is his favorite movie in which he has appeared.Bill Murray as Don Johnston in Broken Flowers.
During this time, Murray still appeared in comedic roles such as Charlie's Angels and Osmosis Jones. In 2004, he provided the voice of Garfield in Garfield: The Movie and marked his third collaboration with Wes Anderson in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Murray also garnered acclaim for his dramatic role in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers.
Murray wed Margaret Kelly in 1980. They had two sons, Homer (born 1982) and Luke (born 1985), before divorcing in 1994. In 1997, he married Jennifer Butler. They have four children together: Cal (born 1993), Jackson (born 1995), Cooper (born 1996), and Lincoln (born 2001).
He is a partner with his brothers in Murray Bros. Caddy Shack, a restaurant chain with locations near Jacksonville and in Myrtle Beach and St. Augustine. Murray is an avid golfer who often plays in celebrity tournaments. His 1999 book Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf, part autobiography and part essay, expounds on his love of golf. In 2002, he and his brothers starred in the Comedy Central series, The Sweet Spot, which chronicled their adventures playing golf.
Very detached from the Hollywood scene, Murray does not have an agent or manager and reportedly only fields offers for scripts and roles using a personal telephone number with a voice mailbox that he checks infrequently. This practice has the downside of sometimes preventing him from taking parts that he had auditioned for and was interested in, such as that of Sulley in Monsters, Inc and Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Murray has homes in Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard, MA, Charleston, SC, and New York.
Murray is a huge fan of Chicago pro sports teams, especially the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears. He also is a big Michael Jordan fan and has made cameo appearances in Space Jam and Jordan documentaries. He also cheered courtside for the Illinois Fighting Illini's game versus the University of North Carolina in the NCAA Basketball Tournament's championship game in 2005. He is a fixture at home games of those teams when in his native Chicago. After travelling to Florida during the Cub playoff run to help 'inspire' the team (Murray told Cub slugger Aramis Ramirez he was very ill and needed two home runs to give him the hope to live) he was invited to the champaign party in the Cubs' clubhouse when the team clinched the NL Central in late September of 2007, along with fellow actors John Cusak, Bernie Mac, James Belushi, and former Cub legend Ron Santo. Murray also appeared in Santo's documentary, This Old Cub.
In August 2007, Murray was cited for driving a golf cart while under the influence of alcohol in down-town Stockholm, Sweden. |
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